bushido_man96

10/20/2022 Strength Training Hack Squats: 45x8, 115x8, 115x8, 115x8. Leg Press: 275x5, 275x5, 275x5. RDLs: 45x5, 135x5, 155x5, 195x8, 195x8, 195x8. Barbell Rows: 145x8, 145x8, 145x8. Conditioning: 15 minutes of rowing, 1 min on, 1 min off. Stretch: quads, hams, glutes.

10/19/2022 TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-Shirt Class. No sparring today. My shoulder is really limiting what I can do, and at how high an impact. I did some forms; Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Choong, and Do San, but not very hard. Did focus on stances and proper technique, and really engaging the hips for power and a little snap. I also used Bob to work on some of SPEAR DT concepts, standing in an interview stance and tilting Bob back to simulate a headbutt, working into the flinch and then elbow strikes from various angles. Working the closest weapon/closest target principle. I also spent portions of the class working with a young low rank on some technique. She was doing back leg round kicks on the heavy bag, with her left leg at first. She struggled with her left leg, but her right leg she did just fine. I stood a kicking shield up so she had to chamber her leg up properly to kick over it. Sometimes she'd drag the leg up in a straight-leg motion, and other times she'd forget to pivot entirely. With her right leg, she did just fine. After that, I was having her focus on engaging her hips while doing a down block and a high block, trying to get her to see the value in doing a technique with the whole body. Next, she was working with the makeshift makiwara we have set up, so I helped instruct her a little on that. I explained to her how the structure of the technique if important in dealing with the "feedback" you get when striking the makiwara. Focusing on the punch being straight, striking with the proper knuckles, getting the arm lined up, and again engaging the hips for power. Lastly, she was doing some hopping side kicks on the mini-Bob we have. When she would hop together, her body would go from being lined up (hips, shoulders, knees, heels) to her hips turning in, causing her body to be V'ed when she landed the kick, sacrificing power and just the overall integrity of the technique. The fix was to get her to point her butt at the target and try to keep everything lined up as she struck the target. She had a little trouble keeping it lined up, bringing her hip in when she hopped forward, but if she kept her butt pointed, she'd end up staying pretty well in line with the target.

Not sure who's going to win it this year. Royals had an absolutely abysmal season, and they aren't bringing back their manager. Dayton Moore is also gone, so it will be interesting to see how things look moving forward. Lots of young talent again, but none of it really in pitching.

10/18/2022 Strength Training Hack Squats: 45x5, 105x8, 105x8, 105x8. Leg Press: 265x5, 265x5, 265x5. Deadlifts: 185x5, 225x3, 275x1, 310x5. Basically did supersets with the hack/leg press. I'd like to be doing higher numbers, but I've got to do it right, too. Deadlift went well, but I felt kind of fatigued as I was doing it. Kept the work set in contact with the legs for the most part.

Awesome, hopefully that's you found your solution! I'm really hoping so. It's been a point of frustration for me as I've gone up in weight. 10/17/2022 TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Started out with going through Do-Kang 1 several times. We had a new black belt in the class who was still learning it for his next testing, so we focused early on it. We went through it a few different counts, and then on our own count. I performed Choong Jang twice, facing different directions each time. I hadn't done that in a while, and it was a good change up. There is a spot in the form where we have to drop to a knee and do a round kick while kneeling, followed by a right hand punch while still kneeling, then we stand up into a backwards elbow strike. This section of the form is really clunky, so paced my way through it. My knees don't like me changing levels like that, and then trying to stand up. When I do stand up into the elbow strike, I tend to miff the back stance I get into a little bit, so I've focused on that footwork. Also did Se Jong twice. That tends to be one of the "forgotten forms" for us, as we don't spend a lot of time on it. Reviewing it was a good thing. I watched our two 2nd dans do Gae Baek, once at their own count, then I went through and really picked at it a second time through. I know some of the students are planning on attending a tournament this weekend, so hopefully they took some things away to help them out. Next spent time picking a random form for the black belts to do, and watching them go through them. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part, the students got through their respective forms. A young 1st degree had trouble with Yul Gok, though, and I had to lead her through by count. I did get a very little bit of stretching done. My left arm is still hurting from the PDS on Saturday, so nothing I did had a lot of snap or power in it.

Yeah, it sounds to me that if you've got to do that much work to get anything useful out of them, then there is probably an easier and more efficient way to do it.

10/14/2022 Strength Training Hack Squats: 45x8, 95x8, 95x8, 95x8. Snatch Grip Deadlifts: 105x5, 145x5, 195x3, 220x5, 220x5. Conditioning: skip rope, 10 minutes, but not continuous. I started out and skipped until I "missed," then rested briefly, and started back up. I'm hoping to just get better at this over time. I've always wanted to be able to skip rope like I've seen Boxers do, being able to do double and triple skips, alternating feet, etc. The hack squats ripped me up! The leg press didn't make me sore at all, but the hack really tore up the kinetic chain. Going to do some more next week. Snatch deads felt good; 195 was a bit of struggle, but the work sets went smoothly. I can tell that I'm probably going to need to use straps pretty soon. 10/15/2022 Women's PDS: Just a little over an hour, with only two people showing up for the session. I warned the CI to get commitments, not interest. Hundreds of views and shares on Facebook, and he was certain the turnout was going to be high. It wasn't, and I was quite frustrated with it.[/u]

Wastelander, I tend to agree with you on the step-sparring. In my experience, it's just been curriculum designed to be tested on, and nothing better than that. I've grown very frustrated with the one and three-step sparring that has been developed by the organization I'm in.

Well, I can't say as I blame you for leaving. Try to find another place to train, even if you have to travel there once every few weeks. Otherwise, continue to train on your own, and try to stay sharp. You should get that other guy to train outside the dojo with you.

Welcome to KF!

10/11/2022 Strength Training Back to the gym! Leg Press: 45x10, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5. Deadlifts: 185x5, 205x3, 225x3, 275x2, 305x5, 330x2. Conditioning: rowing, 1 minute on, 1 minute off, for 13 minutes. I need to start doing something else for my legs, so I'm trying the leg press again. I still felt a little pain in the adductor tendon. We'll see what progressive overload does for it here. 10/13/2022 Strength Training Leg Press: 45x10, 255x5, 255x5, 255x5. RDLs: 45x5, 135x5, 155x5, 190x8, 190x8, 190x8. Barbell Rows: 140x8, 140x8, 140x8. RDLs felt really good on the lats today. Hopefully, that is the exercise that helps to fix the "floating bar" on my deadlifts.

10/6/2022 Spear Instructor Course: Day 4, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. Today we started with a bit of classroom stuff, then got into the mat room to review our assigned teach-back drills with out partners, and go over any details before doing the teach backs for our certification. After lunch, we got into the teach backs, and everyone got through them really well, and we all certified as instructors. We had a pretty small group, with only 8 students. It was presented as a "battle buddy" course, and an agency could basically send two students for the price of one. Win-win all around, as now I've got someone else in the department that is certified in the same thing, and can offer some solid assistance when teaching to our other deputies and jailers. This course was quite a bit different than other courses I had done in the past. We focused a lot on pre-fight indicators, and watching videos, many of which I had seen already, and instead of watching with a focus on what the officer was doing (which is common for us to do, looking for things not to do), we focused on what the bad guys was doing. This allowed us to focus more on the indicators that lead up to the attack, and helps us in reverse engineering the drills, and build them off the ambush attack. Very interesting, and I found it very helpful, and I look forward to working more within my department, and building the skills of our new and experienced deputies and jailers.

I agree with this strategy, and I understand the concept is different in sport fighting than it is in self-defense. I'm not winning any trophies in class, though, so I've just picked it as a good time to focus on the concept of not backing up, or at the least, backing up less. If I do, I want to keep it to a few very focused steps, as opposed to withdrawing across the distance of the ring because I'm getting overwhelmed by someone's offense.

10/5/2022 Spear Instructor Course: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. Day 3 of good ol' defensive tactics training. Had some class time today, going over power point on the various ideas and philosophies behind the system. Spent time in the mat room going over the drills again, doing teach backs of the drills to each other. Today, we picked out the drills that we will teach tomorrow for the certification. We also have a couple of Zoom calls tomorrow as a group, one of them being with Tony Blauer. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. Did some stretching in the rack, then rolled out a standing bag to work on some kicks. Did some round kicks, some front and back leg side kicks, back leg front kicks, spin side kicks, and spin hook kicks. Did a slow and hopefully smooth walk-thru of Choong Jang, then finished class up with some rounds of sparring. I pretty much held to my goal of not giving up ground. In the process, I made myself take a flurry of punches from the CI. At one point, I told him "hit me!" I opt to not wear the chest protector, as it severely limits my movement. So, I encourage the people I spar to get in some contact. I'm going to have a nice bruise on my left calf tomorrow, as I caught an elbow when I tried to throw a spin side kick while jammed in pretty close (not giving ground...). Elbow snagged the muscle on the outside, and I can feel it frogging up my entire calf as I sit here and flex it tonight. Good stuff! As an aside, I got more beat up from one TKD class this week than I have in a full week of LEO defensive tactics training!

10/4/2022 Spear Instructor Course: Day 2 of training, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm. Another good day of training. We did a little bit in the classroom, looking at some videos and working backwards to show how to develop better responses to ambush attacks. Lots of time spent in the mat room doing teach-backs of the drills we did yesterday.

Thanks for putting things into perspective. I am probably harder on him sometimes than I need to be -- I just see how good he can be when he really tries at it. He has also expressed a desire to start learning Kobudo in addition to karate, so maybe that will help him a bit too. However, his mom laid down the law that he has to show us that he can keep up with his schoolwork without being nagged before he is allowed to add any more extracurricular activities. It's great that you are putting the onus on him to be more proactive in the things he needs to get done, so that he can earn the privilege to do more things that he wants to do. Excellent. I tend to do some backing up when sparring, mainly because the rule set limits what I can do with my hands. However, I am going to be more mindful going forward about giving up less ground, and trying to move more laterally.

Congrats!

For us, it's mainly just Jack-o'-Lanterns.

This is interesting, but I do think it could be a boon to the series. I thought the same thing. I would like to think we're dealing with reasonable adults here, but apparently that just won't do for this series. I've gotten to the point where I just accept it, and be entertained.

I never used to have problems kicking, either. Then I turned 40....

I took a look at the rowing numbers and it likely depends on if you are pushing the weight or erring on the side of caution and trying to get some lighter volume in. What i mean by that is that your deadlift numbers are currently a little higher than mine but in a similar ballpark i think overall and for rows i am doing 65kg (approx 143lbs) for sets of 10 with the focus being on lighter volume - if i try to max out i can hit a double at about 100kg. Reason for mentioning this is i have never felt my lats or upper back are a limiting factor in my deadlift at all and it is the only thing i can see as a major difference potentially. Looking again it might well be a mid back thing - your lat pulldown numbers seem a lot higher than the rows and they don't use as much upper/mid back. Just throwing out some ideas so apologies if it is overly interfering!!! No worries, DP. I just started implementing rows back into my routine, and whenever I add an exercise, I start rather conservatively and then linearly progress it each workout. Since rows are an ancillary exercise, I plan on keeping the reps at about 8, and doing 3 or 4 sets, depending on what I think I need. I'll never attempt to "max out" on it. But, I'll keep gradually adding weight to the bar each workout with it. I've been doing lat pull-downs for quite some time, but mainly because I can't really do a chin-up. A while back, I could do maybe 2 chins with a neutral grip, but my shoulder has been so ripped up I haven't messed with it in some time. But that's probably why those numbers are higher. 9/29/2022 Strength Training RDLs: 45x5, 135x5, 155x5, 185x8, 185x8, 185x8. Barbell Rows: 135x8, 135x8, 135x8. Conditioning: 20 minutes of rowing. First 10 minutes I did 1:30 on, 30 off; switched it to 1:00 on, 1:00 off for the last 10 minutes. 9/30/2022 Strength Training Snatch Grip Deadlifts: 105x5, 145x5, 195x3, 215x5, 215x5. 10/3/2022 Defensive Tactics Training: Today was the first day of training at a Spear Instructor's Course. It's being held locally, which is a great bonus. We spent the day going over the startle-flinch response, and getting into various drills to progress through it's various levels, and honing and training this natural response. It was a very interesting day of training, and am looking forward to the rest of the week. 8 hours of training.

I found this quite informative! I think I will pick a few and try to get some work in on them when I can find a partner. My kids may become my partners....

aurik, it can be tough with the kids sometimes. At the end of the day, remember that they are indeed just kids, and they will have those lapses. Praise the great performances, and be encouraging with the other ones. As they get older, if they really love it, you'll see the focus increase. Thanks for sharing the videos on the drills. I like the circular blocking and moving off-line. I don't like the backing up so much. We have 3-step sparring we do where we back up, as well, and I really don't like it. I don't like encouraging backing up to my students, and I don't teach it in my defensive tactics courses if it can be helped. But, I do like the other tactics involved there.

No, all good, DarthPenguin! I use a five-step deadlift setup that keeps the hips high at the start of the lift, so hips aren't an issue. Not sure on the other upper back muscles, really. I do some rowing, and have posted the weight from my sessions above. I've been gradually increasing the weight on my rows. I think it's just something I'm going to have to keep attention to when I deadlift. 9/28/2022 TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. Did some work on the heavy bag, and on the speed bag, along with a little stretching. Finished with some sparring. It went ok. I got tagged a few times, which is alright. Just need to clean up some footwork and defense. I catch myself rooting and committing to the block, when I should be blocking and counter-kicking either at the same time, or right after blocking.

That's great! Can you tell us more about your experience?